Desert Heat

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: ENVY

Ms. Sally sat on the chair opposite her daughter, Lily, as she watched her sip her cup of tea. Ms. Sally knew that something was wrong when her daughter had not called her for almost two weeks.

She watched as Lily placed her cup of tea on the coffee table beside her, and she stared at a spot in the wall for an entire five minutes. She knew that her daughter was hurting, but she had yet to find out what had torn her apart.

Ms. Sally was aware that her daughter had gone through a culture shock, learning new foods, people, and ways of living, but it seemed as though she was handling it quite well.

She stood up from her chair; her movement was enough to awaken her daughter from her daydream.

"I am going to get your bed ready; wait here for me." Ms. Sally walked away from her daughter, but as she was climbing the steps, Lily stopped her.

"Are you not going to ask me what happened?" Lily asked her mother. A million thoughts went through Ms. Sally's head, but she stopped herself. Her back turned towards her daughter, and she forced a smile and wiped a tear from her eyes.

"One day at a time, my dear, one day at a time," Ms. Sally told her daughter, and she continued walking up the stairs.

Stepping into her daughter's room felt different—much different from all the other times that she had walked into it. She had left the place untouched ever since Lily had left for Hamidin, but now it seemed like they both needed a break, and getting away was best for the both of them.

**

Two weeks later,

King Aziz sat in his throne room as he waited for his guard to come back. He needed to know what was happening. His wife had been missing for the past two weeks, and it seemed as though she had disappeared into thin air.

He had sent his guards to search the entire kingdom, and he had even put out a reward for anyone who had any information on his wife, but there was nothing. Concentrating on matters of the kingdom was almost impossible as he worried for his wife's safety. Many had said that she was dead, but something in King Aziz told him that she was still alive.

The palace seemed dull without Lily, and his bed was colder without her. Everything about this big palace annoyed him. The doors to the throne room shot open, and immediately his guards walked in and bowed to their king.

"What have you found out?" King Aziz asked his guards, and they seemed disappointed. That was enough to tell him what he needed.

"I am sorry, my king, but your wife is not at her mother's, and we have searched every possible place where she could be." One of his guards informed him. The answer crushed the King's heart, and he thought that his wife was nowhere.

Lily, my love, where are you? King Aziz asked himself mentally: His nights had been sleepless, and coupled with this recent development, the king was sure that he would not be sleeping peacefully.

"Have you any other information about the whereabouts of my wife?" King Aziz asked his guards.

"No, there is none, my king," the guards answered him, and this only infuriated the king. He had spent hundreds of man-hours and money looking for his wife, and yet there was nothing.

"So you are telling me that my wife just disappeared into thin air!" King Aziz raised his voice at his guards. His door shot open once more, and this time Fahd, his trusted bodyguard, walked in.

"Greetings, my king." Fahd bowed down to the king, but King Aziz was in no mood for formalities.

"If you have no news on my wife, please kindly leave my presence along with your friends," King Aziz told Fahd.